The wonderful storyteller Isabel Allende returns to her native Chile with a meticulously researched, dramatically told tale based on the largely overlooked life of Ines Suarez, an indomitable Spanish con quistadora who played a seminal role in the settlement of the Chilean nation. In sixteenth century Spain, Ines is a poor seamstress whose ne'er-do-well husband has run off to the New World. Pursuing him, she arrives in Peru only to discover that he is dead, but fate draws her into the thrilling adventure that is the conquest of South America.

A love affair with Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarro's trusted officers, changes the course of Ines's life, as she follows him on his mission to conquer Chile. Together, they will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage a bloody, ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans - the fierce local Indians led by the chief Michimalonko, and the even fiercer Mauche from the south. The struggle not only forever alters their lives, but irredeemably shapes the future of the nascent Latin American country as well. "Ines of My Soul" is a beguiling recreation and a meditation on the truth that lies beneath the received record, and, in Allende's own words, "a work of intuition"- Codys Books

Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende was born in Peru, and now lives in California. She worked for many years as a journalist before writing the internationally bestselling novel The House of the Spirits. Since then she has published the equally highly-acclaimed Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, The Stories of Eva Luna, The Infinite Plan and Paula.

In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She received Chile's National Literature Prize in 2010.